The prior art is replete with numerous examples of methods, devices, and various means, for storing and generating hydrogen and later using that same hydrogen for assorted industrial applications such as a fuel in various electrochemical devices like fuel cells, or which further can be consumed in internal combustion engines of various overland vehicles.
As a general matter, current methods of producing hydrogen have been viewed by most researchers as being expensive and very energy intensive. It has long been known that hydrogen can be produced from a chemical reaction of an alkali metal with water and various arrangements, such as what is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,864, have been devised to enclose a reactive material, such as an alkali metal, or metal hydride, that which, upon exposure to water, produces hydrogen as a product of that reaction.
While the advantages of using a fuel such as hydrogen to replace fossil fuel as a primary energy source are many, no single approach has emerged that will provide a convenient means whereby hydrogen can be economically produced in a form, whether gaseous, or liquefied, which makes it useful in the applications noted above. Still further, the methods currently disclosed in the prior art of producing useful chemical hydrides for the methodology discussed above, and which could potentially be used to implement, at least in part, a hydrogen infrastructure have remained elusive. Moreover, there remains no one convenient method that could be used to render a large amount of contaminated biomass inert.
Therefore, a method that addresses these and other perceived shortcomings in the prior art teachings and practice and that is also useful for rendering a biomass inert is the subject matter of the present application.